Estonians Vote in Parliamentary Election by Mobile Phone

Published on: 7th Mar 2011

Note -- this news article is more than a year old.

TeliaSonera's subsidiary, the mobile operator EMT in Estonia, has created a world's first mobile identification service which makes it possible to vote via a mobile phone. The service enabled the citizens of Estonia to cast their vote to yesterday's parliamentary elections via their mobile phone for the first time in the world.

TeliaSonera's subsidiary EMT has created a Mobile ID-service that enables
verification of people's identity over the Internet, digital signature, and
now casting votes electronically as well.

"It is a technological breakthrough that a mobile phone could be used for
giving legally binding digital signature replacing handwritten signature on
paper. We are very proud to be able to use this kind of innovative mobile
service for voting in elections. Additionally all kind of other e-services can
be used with the Mobile ID in Estonia", says Håkan Dahlström, President of
Mobility Services."

Electronic voting by ID card has been used in Estonia already for six years
- since the local elections in 2005. The number of e-voters has grown
constantly from 1.9% to 15.8% of total voters in 2009 local elections.

"Estonia has stood out with adoption of innovative e-solutions in the past
as well and I'm pleased that voting with Mobile ID becomes the next step in
our pro-tech development", said Juhan Parts, Minister of Economic Affairs and
Communications.

EMT launched Mobile ID service in May 2007. Mobile ID service was initially
available only for EMT customers for using e-services created by both private
(e-banking, e-service environments) and public (state portal eesti.ee, e-Tax
Board, etc.) sectors. Other Estonian mobile operators joined the service
platform created by EMT at a later time. In February 2011, new wording of
Identity Documents Act that makes Mobile ID a state-approved electronic document
as of February 1st 2011 entered into force. In addition to verification of an
identity and digital signatures, new state-approved Mobile ID enables to cast
votes in elections as well.